The Irish Medical Council has 25 members. 12 of these are elected by their peers from the Irish Medical Profession; they are elected doctors, in other words. The other 13, the majority, are appointed by the government; they are non-elected lay people with government affiliations. The 12 doctor-appointed members tend to be conservatives who canvassed their conservative colleagues for votes to be elected in the first place.

Younger people may not realise this but up until the 1970's some hospital doctors in Ireland, were incredibly arrogant and aloof and...